The Legend of the Eight: The Twisted (Book 3)

18: Who Do You Go Home To?

EIGHTEEN: WHO DO YOU GO HOME TO? 
MAY 11
NICOLE BRADLEY

JUST WHEN THEY BEGAN TO think the worst of the worst had happened, days after Liam's death, the Eight were informed of the state of the World of Magic. Back at the Armory, Wil and Kate's attempts at crashing the call to their parents was thwarted by the arrival of the Shadow Thieves so they didn't get much information. However, on Wednesday, Levi received an encrypted call from Davina Salvatore, informing them of the most recent attack by the Resistance. They'd attempted to break into Jeremiah's stronghold and in the process, some people had been captured—among them, Walter and Clarion Diamond.

Luke and Damon spent endless hours in the guesthouse where they began researching every possible spell to help locate the monarchs and return them to safety. In the meantime, Nicole and the others prepared to memorialize Liam's life and sacrifice.

Drew and Phoebe took care of procuring a location for the memorial to take place (apparently, they knew of the perfect one) and Logan was responsible for cremating Liam's body with the help of an Ignis Fulmen spell. He collected the ashes into a nice urn for them to spread during the memorial.

Nicole was in search of Kate when she walked into Cam's bedroom, where she suspected she'd find her. But the lights were off and the room was empty. Her forehead scrunched and she looked around the dark room before determining no one was there. Next, she tried Kate's bedroom but just like Cam's, it was dark and empty. Across the hall, she knocked on Chloe's door but when she tried to open it, she found it was locked. Confused but not surprised (Chloe was still adjusting to the close-knit vibe of the group), Nicole tried the room next to Chloe's—Wil and Phoebe's.

Phoebe was still out of the house with Drew but sure enough, there in Wil's bed surrounded by an excessive number of pillows and holding each other tight were the Diamond twins.

"There you are," Nicole said, smiling because they were all so broken and she didn't know what else to do. "How are you doing?"

Kate's eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were splotchy. She'd spent the days since Liam's death crying inconsolably. By the end of the day on Monday, Cam had stopped going into her room because she'd insisted so many times that she just wanted to be alone. At some point, Kate ended up with her sister—the last person Nicole imagined would provide any sort of comfort.

"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and none of this is going to be real," Kate said, her voice raw from all the crying. "Like I'm going to go downstairs and he'll be in the kitchen making a smoothie after a run. And then I remember that he's not there. I remember that he died. He's dead now and we're not getting him back."

"It's still fresh," Nicole said, forcing the optimism in an attempt to help her friend. "It's only been a few days. It's just going to take some time and then..."

"And then what?" Kate snapped. "And then we just forget about him and move on with our lives? WE just pretend like he wasn't our friend, like we didn't—" She gasped for breath and a fresh round of tears came.

"Of course not," Nicole said, looking to Wil for help but the princess was avoiding eye contact completely.

"Really?" Kate fired back, suddenly attacking Nicole with her words. "Because you lost your sister six months ago—your own sister!—and yet you act like you're an only child!"

"Easy there, Katie," Wil said to her sister, just as Nicole started to reason,

"Kate, that's different."

"How is it different? She was your sister, Nicole. She was killed in some ritualistic spell to take down the Veil and you were over her death before you finished moving into the dorm!"